The great institution of American college athletics almost perished in its infancy. In 1905, due to 45 deaths caused from in-game football injuries during the prior five years (including 19 deaths in 1905 alone), there was broad outcry to outlaw the sport. This movement was crystalized by Harvard President Charles William Eliot, who mounted a campaign to abolish the game.
Today, more than a century later, college sports once again face an existential turning point. It will result in either fortification or destruction of this uniquely American system that provides opportunity to hundreds of thousands of young people and intrinsically cultivates American values.
In 1905, it was strong leadership from an American icon that rescued college sports. President Theodore Roosevelt saw football as core to the American spirit, and an integral part of the “Strenuous Life” that he knew was necessary for the nation’s protection and prosperity. President Roosevelt famously said, “In life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard; don’t foul and don’t shirk, but hit the line hard!”
To save this game, Roosevelt convened the most-prominent football coaches of the day, including the famous Yale University coach Walter Camp. Roosevelt called for reforms in game rules and for forming an association to standardize and govern their implementation and enforcement. This resulted in the organization we know as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA.
Our national intercollegiate athletics system that emerged from this meeting is unreplicated and unparalleled anywhere in the world. It now provides opportunity to more than 532,000 student athletes and trained the winners of 329 medals in the Paris Olympics. This system remains core to the strength and success of our nation. It develops leadership, work ethic, toughness, and competitive spirit, and provides the promise of education and social mobility to many who otherwise would not enjoy such opportunities.
In recent years, federal, state, and Supreme Court rulings have forced college sports to become quasi-professional, but without the legal protections enjoyed by professional sports. The NCAA’s power to enforce or regulate any rule has been severely degraded. On certain matters, its authority has been completely stripped.
Moreover, recent action and edicts by the outgoing Biden administration further fueled the fire, and has accelerated the pace of destruction of the institution. We are one court ruling away from complete chaos.
Unfortunately, today’s problems are much more complex than they were in Roosevelt’s era, so things aren’t as simple as meeting with the coaches and amending the rules. The challenge is much bigger than just name, image, and license agreements (NIL) and the transfer portal.
Saving college sports this time will require comprehensive federal legislation that touches some of the most complex areas of law. This gives Congress and the Trump administration an opportunity to manifest leadership that will sustain our intercollegiate athletics system for another 120 years.
A truly sustainable solution will pre-empt the tangle of state laws and address antitrust issues regarding both labor and media (including possible amendment of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961) to stop the onslaught of litigation. They must allow the business side of college sports to operate effectively and resolve a litany of employment-related issues. Our leaders must also confront and address the implications of Title IX (especially given what the Biden Department of Education did in its final days) and protect athletes against predatory actors.
All of this must be done in a manner that is maximally inclusive of the 134 Football Bowl Subdivision schools. All these institutions and the communities they’re in will be profoundly affected, both economically and culturally, by whatever solutions emerge. This isn’t just about the most premier and highest-profile programs.
As an ardent proponent of free markets, I agree that student athletes should be fairly compensated for the value they create for the media industry and their institutions, which has become massive. These athletes certainly should receive their fair share.
However, I also understand that football and men’s basketball are the only sports that produce positive net revenue, and that funding from these two sports makes it possible for women’s sports and non-revenue Olympic sports to survive. Without the significant profit that football and men’s basketball provide, our incredible system, and all the benefits it provides to so many, will cease to exist.
It should be the goal to find a middle path that preserves the benefits of the legacy structure and pays respect to the great and unique American institution of intercollegiate athletics, while also recognizing the commercial realities of modern college sports.
We can save college sports. But to do so, we must approach the issue, in Teddy Roosevelt’s words, “with courage, in a spirit of fair dealing, with sanity and common sense.”
Cody Campbell is a former football player for Texas Tech and the Indianapolis Colts. He is a distinguished fellow at the America First Policy Institute, a board member of Texas Public Policy Foundation, and is a member of the Board of Regents of the Texas Tech University System.
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